Post by Emerald City on Mar 2, 2005 16:52:45 GMT -5
LONDON (AFP) - The "Cursing Stone" of Carlisle was intended simply as an innocent community art project, harking back to the British city's colourful past.
But following floods, disease and a string of other local misfortunes, city elders are considering whether the 10,000-pound (14,500-euro, 19,000-dollar) artwork should be removed and destroyed, a report said on Wednesday.
The stone, a 14-tonne granite slab intricately engraved with a 16th-century diatribe against violent raiders, was commissioned by city councillors for the Millennium celebrations.
Created by Carlisle-born artist Gordon Young, is now stands at the centre of the city, near its castle.
The 1,069-word curse was originally levelled at "reiver families", who raided Carlise and other parts of the far north of England from just over the border in Scotland in the 16th century.
However, since the work of art was installed, Carlisle has suffered the worst local flooding for more than a century, an outbreak of livestock disease foot and mouth and a rash of local job losses as factories closed.
Even the city's beloved football team, Carlisle United, has endured their own famine of goals, leading them to be relegated from the Football League, The Times newspaper said.
Now the local council is to debate a motion about whether to move the Cursing Stone outside the city boundaries, or even destroy it altogether.
It was proposed by councillor Tim Tootle, who said he was finally pushed into action by floods which deluged Carlisle in January, killing three people.
"Many groups and individuals warned the council that the placing of a non-Christian artifact, based on an old curse on local families, would bring ill luck to the city," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"This has (been) seen to be correct."
Artist Young -- a descendant of one of the reiver families -- has angrily compared the plan to the destruction of the giant Buddhas in Bamiyan by Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s Taliban regime in 2001.
"It is of that order. They want to smash it to pieces. It is a powerful work of art but it is certainly not part of the occult," he said.
"If I thought my sculpture would have affected one Carlisle United result, I would have smashed it myself years ago."
